earticle

영어

Cordyceps militaris (CM) occurring from a fruiting body by a host insect is a kind of mushroom, which is composed of animal host and plant fruit body. CM contains large amounts of useful ingredients including polysaccharides, vitamins, amino acids, minerals, etc. The essential amino acids from CM including cystine, lysine, and methionine can be expected to improve damaged hair treatment as effective ingredients. In this study, the improvement effect of the CM extracts on chemical and physical properties for damaged- hair treatment was investigated. The cysteic acid and cystine monooxide produced by oxidation of cystine were analyzed their chemical structure by FT-IR spectroscopy. It was confirmed that the vibration absorption peak (1,041 cm-1) of cysteic acid was reduced and increased sulfur content considerably which means meaningful improvement effect on damaged-hair treatment. Apparently, the cuticle morphology of the damaged-hair was improved significantly by treatment with CM extracts. Especially, confocal laser scanning microscope images of the damaged-hair treated with the extract showed highly increased fluorescence intensity which means promising effect in hair treatment. The tensile strength of the damaged hair treated also increased by 168% compared with the damaged hair.